Gert Peek, working at the department of Soil Physics and Land Management, former Teacher of the Year and Master Referee has written for us an article on the principles of soil drilling with advice for the best drilling methods. Below is a part of this article.
(…) Regarding techniques: drill clockwise and let the drill do the work. The use of excessive violence on the drill is not beneficial for your drilling technique (except at the surface). Keep turning the drill until a reasonable resistance is experienced: the auger is full. This is the case after approximately 3 turns (depending on the humidity of the soil). Drilling to deep results in a very compact soil sample, this makes it very hard to empty the auger and consequently costs time. Rather drill an extra time; an auger filled for 3/4 is better than one completely filled. There is no use in all team members trying to empty the auger; 2 or 4 hands are enough to do the job and are far more efficient that 10 hands. In case of a dry and loose soil the drilling servant can empty the auger by hitting the ground with it.
Regarding tactics: Loose soil makes drilling far easier than solid, sticky soil. Search for those mole tunnels or vertical shrinkage cracks in between the larger prismatic structural elements. For the uninformed: the course Introduction to Soil Science offers a clarification. For those teams who are neither strong nor smart: You can look for a (badly) sealed borehole of a previous match; however, do feign hard labor, otherwise restart or even disqualification might be the consequence. Some final words of advice: whoever boasts the most is most likely to lose and excessive consumption of alcohol is not beneficial for the overall coordination (where is my bore hole?).(…)
